Trauma (9 page)

Lafferty examined his surroundings, taking in personal touches rather than the furnishings which could be found with only minor differences in any of the other flats in the block. There was a shield on the mantle which had Joseph O'Donnell's name newly etched on to it. Crossed darts in the centre said what it had been won for. A Maeve Binchey novel lay on the corner of the hearth with Jean O'Donnell's spectacles lying on the cover. Lafferty could see that it was a library copy from the plastic protector on the cover. How many other people in the block visited the library, he wondered and concluded that the fingers of one hand might suffice for the answer. Apart from anything else the nearest public library was a bus ride away. In fact the nearest anything to these flats was a bus ride away. This was a major factor in their unpopularity.

Lafferty could hear whispered arguing outside the door. It seemed to go on for an age before the door opened and a teenage girl was almost pushed into the room. 'She was just about to go out Father,' smiled Jean. 'But she's got time for a word before she goes.'

Lafferty stood up and smiled. 'Nice to see you Mary. Long time no see.'

The girl, dressed in leather jacket and tight jeans looked up from beneath hair that cascaded over her eyes and said, 'Sorry, I've been a bit busy.' Her voice was laced with resentment. She shrugged off her mother's hand which was resting on her shoulder.

'Jean, why don't you leave us to have a little chat?' suggested Lafferty.

'I'll put the kettle on,' said Jean O'Donnell.

'Sit down Mary,' said Lafferty pleasantly. 'Are you off somewhere special?'

'Down the coast on the bikes,' replied the girl.

'The bikes? Motor bikes you mean?'

Mary nodded. She was a pretty girl, a little small for her fifteen years but well proportioned.

'Sounds exciting. But you don't have your own bike at your age surely?' asked Lafferty.

'I'm going on the back of Steve's.'

'Your boyfriend?'

Mary nodded and said, 'He's got a GPZ 500.'

'The Kawasaki's a nice bike,' said Lafferty.

'You know about bikes?' asked Mary.

'I wasn't born boring Mary,' replied Lafferty. 'I've always had a love of motor cycles. I keep abreast of what's on the road these days. There's a lot of nice machinery around.'

'Steve's bike is the nicest. He takes good care of it. He wants to make bikes his career. He's really good. Everybody says so.'

'How old is Steve, Mary?' asked Lafferty.

'About twenty-three. What does that matter?' said Mary defiantly.

'And you are fifteen.'

'I’m not a little girl! I know what I'm doing.'

'Maybe you do,' said Lafferty kindly. 'But your mother is worried sick about you and that's not right.'

'I keep telling her not to worry but she won't listen! What else can I do?'

'Your mother worries about you because she loves you. Try to see things from her point of view.'

'She won't see it from mine!'

'Maybe you're both being a bit stubborn,' said Lafferty.

'I'm going out with Steve and nothing's going to change that!' insisted Mary.

Lafferty shrugged and asked, 'What's your father saying to all this?'

Mary lifter her hair from her forehead and revealed a black and blue mark above her right eye. 'This,' she said.

'And you're still planning to go out this evening?'

'He's down the boozer playing darts. I'm going out with Steve,' said Mary defiantly.

'And your mother's left standing in the middle,' said Lafferty.

Mary was stung into saying, 'She shouldn't be! I don't want her to be! I don't want to be like her! I don't want to spend my life in a dog kennel in the sky waiting for some drunken bum to come home every night. I want to live! I want to enjoy myself. Is that so wrong? Don't answer that. Your bloody church depends on people like her!'

Lafferty was stung. 'What do you mean by that?'

'You know,' said Mary.

'Tell me.'

'Mugs. Gullible mugs. Always on the losing side, giving away everything they've got, doing what they're told. Yes Fathering, No Fathering, wasting away their dreary lives because they've been conned into believing things are going to get better in the hereafter. But they're not! Are they? Because there is no bloody hereafter. It's all a bloody con!'

'Mary! Control yourself,' stormed Jean O'Donnell as she burst into the room. How dare you speak to Father Lafferty like that! I'm so sorry Father. I don't know what's come over her. I honestly don't.'

Lafferty held up a hand and said, 'There's nothing to be sorry for Jean. Mary has a right to her point of view and I am flattered that she’s confided in me. It's only healthy at her age to question everything otherwise we'd never make any progress in this life.'

'You're too understanding, Father.'

Lafferty shook his head and said, 'Mary strikes me as an intelligent, mature girl who is well able to form her own opinions and decide for herself what is right and what is wrong. I think you should trust her.'

Jean O'Donnell looked at her daughter without saying anything but Lafferty was pleased to see a hint of softness appear in Mary O'Donnell's eyes.

'And you, young lady,' said Lafferty to Mary. 'Make sure you’re deserving of that trust.'

'Yes Father,' said Mary. 'I'm late. I'll have to go.'

'Enjoy yourself,' said Lafferty. 'And if you'll take one last word of advice?'

'Yes Father?'

'Find a boyfriend with a CBR 600. It'll beat the shit out of a GPZ500.'

When Mary had gone, Jean served tea and put a plate of Digestive biscuits on the hearth between them. 'Help yourself, please,' she said. Lafferty took a biscuit and said, 'You’re looking worried Jean.'

'I'm thinking about Joe and what he'll do when he finds out she's been out with the bikers again.'

'He's not usually a violent man is he?' asked Lafferty.

Jean's face softened. She said, 'Far from it but that young madam can push him to the limit. She did that they other night there.'

'I saw the mark,' said Lafferty.

Jean was embarrassed. 'She deserved it. After what she said to him - called him a drunken sot to his face.'

Lafferty stayed silent, making Jean feel obliged to continue.

'Joe has never had the best of luck. He's been unemployed for longer than I care to remember and maybe he does enjoy a drink or two but basically he's a good man.'

'Do you think I should have a word with him?' asked Lafferty.

Jean considered for a moment then said, 'No, I don't think so. But I'll tell him you called and spoke to Mary.' Her eye caught Lafferty's and they both understood. Lafferty said a short prayer and then got up to go.

'Thank you for coming.'

'See you Sunday.'

Lafferty walked back along the walkway and paused at the same spot as before to watch the lights of the traffic on the bypass. 'Oh shit,' he murmured under his breath.

* * * * *

McKirrop swung his arms across his chest as he paced up and down on the towpath on a repetitive ten metre patrol. Ostensibly he was keeping warm - he kept remarking to Bella how cold it was - but nerves were playing a large part in his discomfort, not to mention the fact that they were both dying for a drink.

'For God's sake, stand still!' snapped Bella.

McKirrop swung his arms all the harder and complained, 'Where the hell is he?'

'We've only been here five minutes!' retorted Bella.

'Seems like bloody hours.'

Bella watched the pacing figure in the gloom and began to grow suspicious. 'Why are you so edgy?' she demanded. 'What are you really up to?'

'I told you,' replied McKirrop. 'The bugger owes me money. Fifty quid.'

'So why are you shitting your pants?'

'I'm just cold damn it! Now give it a rest will you.'

'Twenty quid for me, right?'

'Twenty, right. We agreed all that,' snapped McKirrop. 'What are you going on about? We're a team aren't we?'

'That's right, John boy,' said Bella quietly. 'But if you're holding out on me . . .'

'Nobody's holding out on you for Christ's sake! Fuck! Where the hell is he?' McKirrop started pacing again but turned smartly when a voice from up on the bridge said, 'McKirrop?'

McKirrop looked up and saw the dark silhouette above the parapet. His throat tightened. 'Have you got my money?' he croaked.

'All in good time. Did you bring the card?'

'In my pocket.'

'Bring it up.'

'You come down.'

'What's all this about a card?' demanded Bella from the shadow of the wall beneath the parapet.

'He just dropped his library card that's all,' said McKirrop dismissively, annoyed that Bella had opted for a speaking role.

'Who's down there with you McKirrop?' asked the voice from above.

'My friend Bella; come to see fair play,' replied McKirrop. 'She's here to see that you give me my money.'

'I'm a witness,' crowed Bella. 'Give him the money you owe him.' McKirrop wished that Bella would just keep her mouth shut but had to concede that that was not Bella's style. The leopard wasn't going to change its spots.

'I'm coming down,' said Sotillo's voice.

McKirrop could feel his heart thumping in his chest. He was a few seconds away from getting his hands on five thousand pounds. Five thousand pounds! He could hear the scrabble of Sotillo's feet on the steep earth path that led down to the towpath. The sound of a man bringing him freedom. Come on Down! McKirrop desperately wanted to urinate. He pressed his hands into his crotch from inside the pockets of his great-coat and shrugged his shoulders up round his ears. He took a step backwards to allow Sotillo to descend the last few metres in a sideways crab-like run forced on him by the steepness of the path.

'Where's the card?' asked Sotillo, straightening up.

McKirrop couldn't make out Sotillo's features in the darkness but was aware that he had the same problem. He figured that he had got the best of that bargain because, while Sotillo sounded unruffled and as urbane as usual, his own cheek muscles were twitching as if electrodes had been inserted in his face; his throat was as dry as the desert. 'Where's the money?' he croaked.

Sotillo's hand came out of his overcoat pocket. There was enough light to pick out the white envelope he held in it. 'Here.'

McKirrop snatched at it with his left hand and brought out the library card with his right. 'Here's your card.' Sotillo took it and McKirrop ripped the envelope open to feel what was inside rather than look at it. There was no mistaking the feel of bank notes. A thick bundle of bank notes.

'Did you get it?' asked Bella from the shadows.

McKirrop had almost forgotten about her. Confidence was flooding back through him like a cocaine rush. 'I got it,' he replied, his voice no longer a croak from a fear tightened throat. 'Nice doing business with you,' he said to Sotillo. 'Maybe we'll do it again some time.'

'I was afraid you might think that,' said Sotillo. He said it slowly and sonorously as if he had been expecting the worst and it had just happened. 'No,' he said. 'Our business as you term it will come to an end here and now.'

'As you say squire,' said McKirrop but there was something about Sotillo's voice that was threatening the reliability of his anal sphincter. All his new found cockiness evaporated in an instant and he found himself wishing that he had not made any reference to future 'business'. 'Just a joke.'

'Let's get out of here,' said Bella, sensing that all was not well. 'You've got your money. Let's get a drink.'

Bella tugged at McKirrop's arm as she turned to start out along the towpath but the tugging stopped suddenly and McKirrop heard her exclaim, 'Who the hell are you? What's your game?' He span round to see two large figures loom up out of the darkness. They were blocking the path behind them.

'What are you trying to pull Sotillo?' demanded McKirrop with more courage than he felt.

'Give me back my money.'

There was an electric pause before Bella said, 'Give him it for Christ's sake. We don't need all this shit for fifty lousy quid.'

'Fifty pounds. Is that what he told you,' said Sotillo. ‘Perhaps your colleague hasn't been quite honest with you.'

Bella turned on McKirrop. 'You bastard! I knew you were up to something. A team, you said. We were a team! I'm going to get Flynn to kick your fucking head in!' How much?' she yelled. 'How fucking much?' She flew at McKirrop.

The two figures moved in to separate Bella and McKirrop who were spitting venom at each other.